Frances Orrok
@francesorrok.bsky.social
Writer. Drawn to the wild ones.
https://www.francesorrok.co.uk
Words in Pithead Chapel | Wigleaf | Smokelong Quarterly | Gone Lawn | New Ohio Review etc
https://www.francesorrok.co.uk
Words in Pithead Chapel | Wigleaf | Smokelong Quarterly | Gone Lawn | New Ohio Review etc
Reposted by Frances Orrok
'Challenge is part of our lives, make it part of our reading lives too'
@cdrose.bsky.social on winning the Goldsmiths Prize
@cdrose.bsky.social on winning the Goldsmiths Prize
November 6, 2025 at 12:39 PM
'Challenge is part of our lives, make it part of our reading lives too'
@cdrose.bsky.social on winning the Goldsmiths Prize
@cdrose.bsky.social on winning the Goldsmiths Prize
Reposted by Frances Orrok
Thank you so much to everyone in Ireland who borrowed #ChristOnABike from their library. Lovely to get a PLR statement & enough to buy a wee treat. Love #readers Love #libraries ❤️📚❤️
#books #booksky
#books #booksky
November 11, 2025 at 8:10 AM
Thank you so much to everyone in Ireland who borrowed #ChristOnABike from their library. Lovely to get a PLR statement & enough to buy a wee treat. Love #readers Love #libraries ❤️📚❤️
#books #booksky
#books #booksky
So happy to be nominated with this happy bunch. Thanks Pithead Chapel!
We're proud to announce our nominations for Best Microfiction 2025! Please join us in congratulating these stellar writers. Good luck everyone!
November 17, 2025 at 9:29 PM
So happy to be nominated with this happy bunch. Thanks Pithead Chapel!
Reposted by Frances Orrok
It's an honor to make top 10 in flash fiction and in the top 100 overall! Thank you for your work, Brecht, and thank you to our amazing writers and readers who make this possible.
The 2026 lit mag rankings are now available from my website! They include an overall ranking, as well as separate rankings for fiction, flash fiction, non-fiction and poetry. If you find these helpful, please show your support by liking & sharing 🙏
November 14, 2025 at 10:17 PM
It's an honor to make top 10 in flash fiction and in the top 100 overall! Thank you for your work, Brecht, and thank you to our amazing writers and readers who make this possible.
Loved this panel at @genevawriters.bsky.social this weekend. Transparency about despair, confusion and knock-backs adding power to their stories of success.
✨ Michael Donkor joins The de Groot Foundation sponsored panel:
“Successful Debut Authors: What We Wish We Knew”
An inspiring discussion on what it really takes to make your first book a success. #WritingCommunity
“Successful Debut Authors: What We Wish We Knew”
An inspiring discussion on what it really takes to make your first book a success. #WritingCommunity
November 17, 2025 at 10:28 AM
Loved this panel at @genevawriters.bsky.social this weekend. Transparency about despair, confusion and knock-backs adding power to their stories of success.
Slow readers may not compile huge end-of-year booklists, but they’re the novelist’s dream: lingering long, repeat-reading paragraphs, befriending characters, missing nothing.
November 12, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Slow readers may not compile huge end-of-year booklists, but they’re the novelist’s dream: lingering long, repeat-reading paragraphs, befriending characters, missing nothing.
Gearing up to start a new novel revision with new working title, new font, new feel. All I need now is to be marooned on a planet with 30 hour days. 20 to write, 10 to sleep. The dream.
October 31, 2025 at 6:35 PM
Gearing up to start a new novel revision with new working title, new font, new feel. All I need now is to be marooned on a planet with 30 hour days. 20 to write, 10 to sleep. The dream.
Florence's new album.
October 31, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Florence's new album.
Reposted by Frances Orrok
Exciting news for students writers!
In partnership with The Geneva Writers Group @genevawriters.bsky.social , we are thrilled to sponsor four Emerging Voices Scholarships for the 2025 Geneva Writers Conference November 14–16. Applications close Oct. 26.
degrootfoundation.org/geneva-write...
In partnership with The Geneva Writers Group @genevawriters.bsky.social , we are thrilled to sponsor four Emerging Voices Scholarships for the 2025 Geneva Writers Conference November 14–16. Applications close Oct. 26.
degrootfoundation.org/geneva-write...
October 15, 2025 at 8:12 PM
Exciting news for students writers!
In partnership with The Geneva Writers Group @genevawriters.bsky.social , we are thrilled to sponsor four Emerging Voices Scholarships for the 2025 Geneva Writers Conference November 14–16. Applications close Oct. 26.
degrootfoundation.org/geneva-write...
In partnership with The Geneva Writers Group @genevawriters.bsky.social , we are thrilled to sponsor four Emerging Voices Scholarships for the 2025 Geneva Writers Conference November 14–16. Applications close Oct. 26.
degrootfoundation.org/geneva-write...
The otherppl podcast celebrates its 1000th episode today. 1000 author conversations there for the listening. Congrats and thank you @bradlisti.bsky.social for this huge archive. Dorthe Nors, Kate Zambreno, Tony Tulathimutte, Anne Enright… too many favourites. 🌟
October 28, 2025 at 9:34 PM
The otherppl podcast celebrates its 1000th episode today. 1000 author conversations there for the listening. Congrats and thank you @bradlisti.bsky.social for this huge archive. Dorthe Nors, Kate Zambreno, Tony Tulathimutte, Anne Enright… too many favourites. 🌟
Reposted by Frances Orrok
Just under 20 days to get your micros (-250 words) in! Fiction, CNF, hybrid, published, unpublished, translations. We're so easy. What about that killer micro you published 20 years ago? It's eligible. We're searching for the best. Deadline Nov 15th. www.smokelong.com/the-smokelon...
The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest 2025 - SmokeLong Quarterly
The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest (The Mikey) is now an annual competition celebrating and compensating the best micro fiction and nonfiction online. The grand prize winner of The Mikey is automatical...
www.smokelong.com
October 27, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Just under 20 days to get your micros (-250 words) in! Fiction, CNF, hybrid, published, unpublished, translations. We're so easy. What about that killer micro you published 20 years ago? It's eligible. We're searching for the best. Deadline Nov 15th. www.smokelong.com/the-smokelon...
Oh Emily I feel so seen! Yikes.
“I just want her to be happy,” I say. “I just want her to write poetry,” I say.
“I just want her to be happy,” I say. “I just want her to write poetry,” I say.
I have a new story in @okaydonkeymag.com and I am so excited about it! I hope you like it as much as I do! okaydonkeymag.com/2025/09/19/1...
13.1 Septillion Pounds by Emily Rinkema
To help her sleep, we give the baby a basketball, a full-size regulation ball that my husband, CT, puts in her crib one night. He writes her name on it with a black Sharpie, bold letters like they …
okaydonkeymag.com
September 20, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Oh Emily I feel so seen! Yikes.
“I just want her to be happy,” I say. “I just want her to write poetry,” I say.
“I just want her to be happy,” I say. “I just want her to write poetry,” I say.
Ken Kesey, author of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest:
Bonus quote: ‘The job of the writer is to kiss no ass, no matter how big and holy and white and tempting and powerful.’
September 18, 2025 at 8:51 AM
Ken Kesey, author of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest:
Reposted by Frances Orrok
Good morning.
What a week.
I love that a quiet book is making such a big splash.
A book corporate publishing wouldn't know what to do with is travelling the world.
Leonard and Hungry Paul by @ronanhession.bsky.social
Indy publishing.
www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/...
What a week.
I love that a quiet book is making such a big splash.
A book corporate publishing wouldn't know what to do with is travelling the world.
Leonard and Hungry Paul by @ronanhession.bsky.social
Indy publishing.
www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/...
Julia Roberts to narrate new BBC series Leonard and Hungry Paul
The feel-good series follows two board-gaming friends in their thirties who meander through leafy suburban life finding solace in their quiet routines
www.bbc.co.uk
September 11, 2025 at 5:48 AM
Good morning.
What a week.
I love that a quiet book is making such a big splash.
A book corporate publishing wouldn't know what to do with is travelling the world.
Leonard and Hungry Paul by @ronanhession.bsky.social
Indy publishing.
www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/...
What a week.
I love that a quiet book is making such a big splash.
A book corporate publishing wouldn't know what to do with is travelling the world.
Leonard and Hungry Paul by @ronanhession.bsky.social
Indy publishing.
www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/...
Reposted by Frances Orrok
‘Entrances to the underworld were usually located on the coast, while the highest and lowest of men were buried there, from local heroes to dead fisherfolk.’
@josephinequinn.bsky.social on the ancient coast:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@josephinequinn.bsky.social on the ancient coast:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Josephine Quinn · Born on the Beach: Ancient Coastlines
Seas are repetitive creatures, working in cycles of tides, migration and climate change, which is normally to say the...
www.lrb.co.uk
August 10, 2025 at 12:53 PM
‘Entrances to the underworld were usually located on the coast, while the highest and lowest of men were buried there, from local heroes to dead fisherfolk.’
@josephinequinn.bsky.social on the ancient coast:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
@josephinequinn.bsky.social on the ancient coast:
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Reposted by Frances Orrok
New @fallowmedia.bsky.social with a Marguerite Duras film script & companion essays by Daniel Fraser & myself, Lisa Robertson on Adnan, Maija Makela on Notley, Owen Hatherley, Stephen Sexton, Lalla Romano, JC Vaughan, Maria Sledmere, Devki Panchmatia & Russell Persson fallowmedia.com/shop/fallow-02
September 1, 2025 at 10:01 AM
New @fallowmedia.bsky.social with a Marguerite Duras film script & companion essays by Daniel Fraser & myself, Lisa Robertson on Adnan, Maija Makela on Notley, Owen Hatherley, Stephen Sexton, Lalla Romano, JC Vaughan, Maria Sledmere, Devki Panchmatia & Russell Persson fallowmedia.com/shop/fallow-02
Reposted by Frances Orrok
Announcing a special micro category for the Baltimore Review fall issue: 400 words max, one or two micros in one sub, micro submission period (9/1 – 9/14) and response by 9/30. Payment for accepted work at our usual rate. Because we love the short and surprising. baltimorereview.org
The Baltimore Review
A journal of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction
baltimorereview.org
August 14, 2025 at 3:29 AM
Announcing a special micro category for the Baltimore Review fall issue: 400 words max, one or two micros in one sub, micro submission period (9/1 – 9/14) and response by 9/30. Payment for accepted work at our usual rate. Because we love the short and surprising. baltimorereview.org
Oh my, THIS. Beauty on the page and ascending above my day. Thank you @jmgatford.bsky.social
Delighted to have my story, Lucille Ascends, take 3rd place in the latest @flash500.bsky.social competition! flash500.com/flash-fictio...
It came from a writing exercise set by the wonderful @noranadj.bsky.social at the @flashficfestuk.bsky.social last year (where so many good things begin) ❤️
It came from a writing exercise set by the wonderful @noranadj.bsky.social at the @flashficfestuk.bsky.social last year (where so many good things begin) ❤️
Flash Fiction 3rd Place: Lucille Ascends by Jo Gatford - Flash 500
Lucille ascends while the bathwater is still running. The bathwater is still running when Max gets home after a shift that leaves his skin aching. After a shift that leaves his skin aching, Max doesn’...
flash500.com
August 13, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Oh my, THIS. Beauty on the page and ascending above my day. Thank you @jmgatford.bsky.social
Reposted by Frances Orrok
Dead Ink Books launches Outsider Classics republishing forgotten masterpieces and once-censored provocations to open the debate about the canon - who gets to create it, who gets excluded from it – and show that it is a malleable and changeable thing. @deadinkbooks.bsky.social
Brilliant.
Brilliant.
August 13, 2025 at 8:41 AM
Dead Ink Books launches Outsider Classics republishing forgotten masterpieces and once-censored provocations to open the debate about the canon - who gets to create it, who gets excluded from it – and show that it is a malleable and changeable thing. @deadinkbooks.bsky.social
Brilliant.
Brilliant.
Reposted by Frances Orrok
"If you find yourself, like me, wishing for quieter stories, for books that treat the mundane as worthy of serious attention, then this list is for you."
@tmcallister.bsky.social shares the books that helped him write It All Felt Impossible (@rosemetalpress.bsky.social).
➡️ buff.ly/6XJLqrl
@tmcallister.bsky.social shares the books that helped him write It All Felt Impossible (@rosemetalpress.bsky.social).
➡️ buff.ly/6XJLqrl
May 23, 2025 at 4:06 PM
"If you find yourself, like me, wishing for quieter stories, for books that treat the mundane as worthy of serious attention, then this list is for you."
@tmcallister.bsky.social shares the books that helped him write It All Felt Impossible (@rosemetalpress.bsky.social).
➡️ buff.ly/6XJLqrl
@tmcallister.bsky.social shares the books that helped him write It All Felt Impossible (@rosemetalpress.bsky.social).
➡️ buff.ly/6XJLqrl
Reposted by Frances Orrok
Authors Darien Hsu Gee, Naomi Cohn, and Tom McAllister (tmcallister.bsky.social) participate in a craft roundtable discussion about how constraints play an important role in the writing process.
buff.ly/itGlZzJ
buff.ly/itGlZzJ
Three Authors on Writing With Creative Constraints - Electric Literature
Naomi Cohn, Darien Gee, and Tom McAllister discuss methods that have helped them overcome writer’s block
electricliterature.com
May 23, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Authors Darien Hsu Gee, Naomi Cohn, and Tom McAllister (tmcallister.bsky.social) participate in a craft roundtable discussion about how constraints play an important role in the writing process.
buff.ly/itGlZzJ
buff.ly/itGlZzJ
Reposted by Frances Orrok
"you say, it’s minus 4 outside and there is only one glove, and the smallest says she needs two bunches not one and so I give everyone a banana and carry her kicking into the car" I feel so seen in this @francesorrok.bsky.social micro in @pitheadchapel.bsky.social pitheadchapel.com/have-you-see...
Have you seen me?
Frances Orrok Have you seen my hat you say and it’s not just any hat it’s the funny tight cap that flattens your ears and goes under your helmet to stop the wind and I know this is important…
pitheadchapel.com
August 12, 2025 at 2:49 PM
"you say, it’s minus 4 outside and there is only one glove, and the smallest says she needs two bunches not one and so I give everyone a banana and carry her kicking into the car" I feel so seen in this @francesorrok.bsky.social micro in @pitheadchapel.bsky.social pitheadchapel.com/have-you-see...
Reposted by Frances Orrok
Yay!!!!! Congratulations, Frances!
Couldn't be happier to have this little story published in the August edition of @pitheadchapel.bsky.social. Many thanks to @kimmagowan.bsky.social for seeing me, and to @smokelong.bsky.social's March Marathon Micro for the single-sentence inspiration.
Our August issue is live! Read here: pitheadchapel.com/2025/08/01/volume-14-issue-8/
Words:
THOMAS MIXON
@francesorrok.bsky.social
ROSS FEELER
@lesliepwriter.bsky.social
JOSIE BRAATEN
MARY BIDDINGER
Cover art:
ERNEST WILLIAMSON III
Words:
THOMAS MIXON
@francesorrok.bsky.social
ROSS FEELER
@lesliepwriter.bsky.social
JOSIE BRAATEN
MARY BIDDINGER
Cover art:
ERNEST WILLIAMSON III
August 12, 2025 at 9:06 AM
Yay!!!!! Congratulations, Frances!